APRA Professional Development Awards are presented by APRA in conjunction with music organisations and institutions involved in the representation or education of Australian music writers. The Awards offer cash, travel and recognition to music writers in the early stages of their careers.
Australian winners of the 2009 PDAs will receive $12,000 cash to advance their careers through study or travel, PLUS: a Gibson guitar courtesy of long-time APRA Awards partner Gibson Guitars, studio time at Trackdown Recording Studio and access to an online course provided by the award-winning Berklee College of Music. Each prize package in 2009 PDAs will total more than $16,000.
The APRA Professional Development Awards (PDAs) were first awarded in 2001 to mark APRA’s 75th Anniversary. The awards were received so enthusiastically by the music industry that the APRA board decided to make the PDAs a permanent fixture on the APRA cultural calendar. As a result, APRA now offers eleven PDAs in Australia and New Zealand to promising emerging music writers in the early stages of their careers.
In association with the PDAs, APRA also administers the Jessica Michalik Contemporary Music Endowment established by The Big Day Out producers. The Endowment gives a $10,000 development grant to a promising Australian songwriter or band, nominated by the producers of The Big Day Out.
